Allotments 4 All

Oh dear. It looks like the only guard would be yet more mesh/netting. To use mesh on lettuces going to seed would be very hard to satisfactorily arrange.
The proportion of veg safely growing fully out in the open is shrinking!

Pretty sure they are cabbage moth Mamestra brassicae

https://www.wildlifeinsight.com/british-moths/cabbage-moth-mamestra-brassicae/

Quote from: galina on September 26, 2025, 05:08:14

Quote from: JanG on September 24, 2025, 08:07:02Fingers crossed for the lettuces. I wonder what particular caterpillar that is which is attacking your seed heads. I luckily haven't experienced that before.But otherwise it sounds like some great harvesting under way. Great stuff!

In Rushden I used to get a few short white quarter inch maggots, a bit like rice grains on drying lettuce seeds, which died quickly and turned red, so were easy to spot and remove. But never in any quantities and they fortunately did not reduce seed yield either. I think they must live on fresh material, because they perished as soon as the seeds dried and they could not move out of the seed containers either.  Is this what you are getting Vetivert?
 

Actually, that rings a bell with me too. Very few and dead by the time I've sorted. Perhaps they thrive in much greater numbers in southern climes.

Quote from: JanG on September 24, 2025, 08:07:02Fingers crossed for the lettuces. I wonder what particular caterpillar that is which is attacking your seed heads. I luckily haven't experienced that before.But otherwise it sounds like some great harvesting under way. Great stuff!

In Rushden I used to get a few short white quarter inch maggots, a bit like rice grains on drying lettuce seeds, which died quickly and turned red, so were easy to spot and remove. But never in any quantities and they fortunately did not reduce seed yield either. I think they must live on fresh material, because they perished as soon as the seeds dried and they could not move out of the seed containers either.  Is this what you are getting Vetivert?
 

Quote from: galina on September 23, 2025, 19:22:49Since the peas were from that same seed circle, maybe Debs you could go back and look at what was shared that year (reference on first page of this year's circle).  May trigger recollection of the name. 

Otherwise a description please.  Flower colour, height.  Also, shelling, mangetout or snap, we had all three that year. Also credit the tomato to its  donor please, it was shared in the same circle, and check its spelling! 

We would love a few photos for the airbase database too and your growing reports. 

That's great, Galina. Very helpful to have all the Childers Cutshort information brought together here. I did grow it a couple of years ago from the wonderful George package but didn't fully appreciate its virtues in the hurly-burly. Looking forward to growing it again.

And fingers crossed for your squash seeds later in the year.

Quote from: Vetivert on September 23, 2025, 13:41:06Welcome Debs  congrats on the new allotment!

Jan I'm mostly, kinda, on track with the list. As you know, peas were a failure, harvested about as much as was sown. :(

Lettuce... we'll see, terrible caterpillar problem again, with them devouring the seed heads. Awful pest.

Tomatoes have done well, as have the cucumbers.

Cress has plenty of seed heads, I just need to find out how and when to harvest it!

Radish seed already harvested and packed away, as well as some dwarf beans.

Flower-wise should have plenty of nice tall Tagetes 'Hot Stuff' and Papaver rhoeas 'Amazing Grey'.
Salvia 'Oxford Blue' is on the cards but have to check whether the seeds are still on the plants!

Great to hear that most things are on track, Vetivert. My commiserations too on the peas. I similarly had a bad year with peas, losing some varieties by taking two weeks away at the wrong time and returning to find all the pods I hadn't been able to harvest before I went had been demolished by rodents.

Fingers crossed for the lettuces. I wonder what particular caterpillar that is which is attacking your seed heads. I luckily haven't experienced that before.But otherwise it sounds like some great harvesting under way. Great stuff!

Since the peas were from that same seed circle, maybe Debs you could go back and look at what was shared that year (reference on first page of this year's circle).  May trigger recollection of the name. 

Otherwise a description please.  Flower colour, height.  Also, shelling, mangetout or snap, we had all three that year. Also credit the tomato to its  donor please, it was shared in the same circle, and check its spelling! 

We would love a few photos for the airbase database too and your growing reports. 

Sorry that first photo is sideways, trying again. 

Sounds good Vetivert.  Yes each gardening year has its challenges.  Knowing how much peas matter to you and how much you like them, it is particularly disappointing that they failed for you. 

However, that wonderful packet of various seeds from George McLaughlin, which you shared is still giving more joy and pleasure here.  I may (still crossing everything) have got his old timey cornfield pumpkin to work finally, with the last of the seeds, selfing for pure seeds, but it is so very late and needs a long season.  Seeds are definitely not ready in time for this circle. 

On the other hand his bean, Childers Cutshort, is relatively early and I saved seeds for the circle.  George says, he is thrilled that his seeds (even very rare within the USA!) are seeing wider circulation and growth and I can definitely recommend this variety.  It is typically Appalachian, in that it has a strong string, which must be removed, and as the pod grows, the beans inside also develop.  A wonderful green bean with 'content'.  And with Childers you don't need that many beans, as the seeds are quite big.  It is a climbing French bean, but not too rampant in its foliage.  I have taken off mature dry pods, but that has not slowed down flowering or the production of more pods in the slightest.  I guess these beans will go on to the end of the season. 

This variety may (or not) be identical with Tennessee cutshort and this is how George tells its story and how he obtained those seeds.  https://seedsavingnetwork.proboards.com/thread/162/tennessee-cutshort-pole-bean?q=childers

A couple of photos.

Welcome Debs  congrats on the new allotment!

Jan I'm mostly, kinda, on track with the list. As you know, peas were a failure, harvested about as much as was sown. :(

Lettuce... we'll see, terrible caterpillar problem again, with them devouring the seed heads. Awful pest.

Tomatoes have done well, as have the cucumbers.

Cress has plenty of seed heads, I just need to find out how and when to harvest it!

Radish seed already harvested and packed away, as well as some dwarf beans.

Flower-wise should have plenty of nice tall Tagetes 'Hot Stuff' and Papaver rhoeas 'Amazing Grey'.
Salvia 'Oxford Blue' is on the cards but have to check whether the seeds are still on the plants!